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Tuesday, September 18, 2007

A wrap in a snap...

If you've been a reader for very long, you know Tuesdays are the day where we usually talk about what we made for the Weekly Wednesday Treat Day that we do for Jeff's co-workers. Tomorrow is an extra special day and I'm not quite done with what I'm making yet, so it will have to wait until tomorrow's post! Even so, I do have something sweet to share for today!

When my family came up last week to see the new house, I made them lunch and also baked them a snack to (hopefully!) enjoy afterwards. Jeff made a comment that we've not done any cupcakes for awhile, so I decided to make these Chocolate Mocha Cupcakes. I didn't tell Jeff before hand that this was a fairly light recipe and he was surprised with how moist and tender they were. Using a good amount of whole-wheat pastry flour to up the nutritional value, along side some all-purpose flour for structure, the batter also has just a few tablespoons of fat for the recipe coming from a mixture of melted butter and canola oil. To keep these cupcakes exceptionally moist, a heaping cup of plain yogurt is added to aide in their tenderness.

Dutch-processed cocoa, colliding with dissolved espresso powder, creates the rich mocha flavor in these dark individual cakes. Because you can't go wrong with more chocolate, a couple ounces of melted dark chocolate is swirled into the finished batter right before these are portioned out into the tins. You could get away with a dusting of confectioners' sugar and call them done, but what is a cupcake without frosting? Softened cream cheese, simply sweetened and flavored with confectioners' sugar, more dissolved espresso and a touch of coffee liqueur just because, creates the velvety frosting that is slathered on top. If you are a chocolate fiend and feeling especially indulgent, shave or grate more of that quality dark chocolate you added to the batter over the top of the cupcakes before digging in.

I've become a big fan of Greek-style yogurt over the last year or so and love the thick, tangy and full-bodied texture it has. I usually top it with blueberries and granola, but we used in a savory fashion with tonight's dinner of Waldorf Chicken Wraps. Inside these wraps is a hearty mixture of shredded chicken breast, crunchy toasted walnuts and crisp Granny Smith apple chunks. Those ingredients are coated in a slick mixture of the creamy yogurt, a couple tablespoons of mayonnaise for richness, fresh lemon juice, Dijon mustard and thyme. The innards are then placed on a leaf of romaine lettuce before adoring the wrap so the tortillas don't get soggy. I loved all of the textures in this wrap - a smooth sauce, chunky crisp filling and a nutty crunch from the walnuts - we put the leftover filling in separate containers and will fill and roll them right before polishing the rest off for lunch tomorrow! You may notice that our wraps have a reddish tinge to them - I used a sun-dried tomato and basil flavored one from a certain brand that we have been using for a few years now.

9 comments:

Those cupcakes look y-u-m-m-y!!I love the greek yogurt as well...it has enough body to really hold up as a sourcream or mayo sub. I like to do exactly what you did...sub the yogurt for most of the mayo, but not all of it...it is the perfect balance!